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Hour Two: Full-on panic, freeways cease to function, people board up their homes and strap on their flippers. Storm-Armageddon-Tsumani watch has begun.

It only gets worse. People literally forget how to live. The rain freaks ’em out.

Santa Cruz has a different approach to rain. Especially First Rain. Why did I capitalize it like the title of an event, you wonder? Well, because it is. First Rain, also known as the Naked Run, occurs after the first full day of rain of the school year. The conditions to be met are 1) It rains all day. None of that misting stuff, full-on rain. 2) It must be a school day. 3) If these conditions have been met, meet at the Porter Quad at 10pm, strip down and get to know the student body.

The view from my window became exclusively naked students at around 9:40PM on Tuesday. Hundreds of students showed up, way more than I was expecting. Once the clock strikes 10pm, the students take off on a cross-campus conquest, picking up packs of fellow nudists and eventually ending at the campus pool.

No, I did not participate. It takes a lot more than rain to get my pants off, plus it’s cold outside even when I’m wearing a coat. But maybe next year. Maybe.